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DNR says tough deer season?


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I was listening to the 10:00 news last night. The anchor reported that the MN DNR said hunters will have to work to get their deer this year because of the increase in wolf population. Gee, who could have seen this coming? After years of bonus tags and hunter complaints of low deer population.

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I was listening to the 10:00 news last night. The anchor reported that the MN DNR said hunters will have to work to get their deer this year because of the increase in wolf population. Gee, who could have seen this coming? After years of bonus tags and hunter complaints of low deer population.

Oh Geez! Here we go! So, early with the Wolf talk already! eek

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Bonus tags, longer seasons, hunters able to hunt all areas of state for all three seasons, down economy increasing hunting for meat, weather and wolves all have an impact in Northern Minnesota. We have always had a lot of wolves in our area since I started deer hunting in the early 1970's. Seeing packs of 3 to 12 wolves and no deer coming out of our deer drives was not unusual back then. We still got deer but had to work (hunt) hard via tracking and deer drives. If you had a stand in the area wolves were working in, you likely wouldn't see deer. Be willing to cover ground (like 1/2 to 2 miles) to find where deer had shifted to avoid wolves.... jackpot! We can handle wolves, its hunter pressure, more people in woods longer for multiple seasons that is harder to work around. Now all tracking and drives do is push deer to others. And if you bought land, planted a food plot(s) and plan on standing there, you likely won't see much if the wolves camp out in your area. Yes they kill some deer, but others will shift away from the wolves. Just gotta go after them! Especially if you have access to unhunted land or better yet hunt in a BLIZZARD! wink

lakevet

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After deer hunting in Minnesota for the past 25 years I'm done, going out of state..unfortunately for me it's never been "that" great here in Minnesota even during the boom years..and before people jump in, yes, I scouted, stayed in the stand ALL day, etc etc maybe I'll be back and maybe I won't hard to tell at this point.

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This will be my 44th year deer hunting in Minnesota. About 30 in Northern Minnesota. I have never heard the DNR blame Timberwolves for a significant decrease in the deer population until now.

I think they want to shift blame off themselves for handing out too many doe tags over the past 5-6 years. Two years ago we were a Managed area (should not have been) and this year they are only giving out 100 doe tags for 6000 hunters. Thank god they are working to fix this now but we have to ask ourselves how the numbers got that bad in the first place. Previous to being a Manages area the DNR would give anywhere from 1500 to 3000 doe tags in the lotto, wow how times have changed.

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I think they want to shift blame off themselves for handing out too many doe tags over the past 5-6 years. Two years ago we were a Managed area (should not have been) and this year they are only giving out 100 doe tags for 6000 hunters. Thank god they are working to fix this now but we have to ask ourselves how the numbers got that bad in the first place. Previous to being a Manages area the DNR would give anywhere from 1500 to 3000 doe tags in the lotto, wow how times have changed.

It's still going on. We are lotto this year with 4500 doe tags. You are 2 miles North of us with 100 doe tags. 2 miles East of us is an intensive area -- I still can't figure it out... How can you shoot 5 does on one side of the road and only have 100 doe tags on the other side of the road?

In 3 years our area went Intensive, Managed, Lotto just like much of the North.

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Ya mean some of us might have to get out of cumfy boxes an blinds an hunt for a change? Dang it anyway.

I hope you are joking. Some areas in the North have been devastated. It is becoming a rare thing to see deer along roads and in fields. Deer sign is slim to none in some areas that used to have healthy herds of deer.

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When I was up north for bear camp I seen quite a few deer next to the roads specially by Duluth area. Seen two shooter bucks that week by Crane Lake plus numerous does and fawns. At camp though we had a large number of wolf tracks. So Im guessing that the wolves won starve this winter. I actually seen most of the does and fawns in middle of the day, next to the roads. Maybe they know they're are safer there for now. That one buck almost got me thinking to come back for deer hunting.

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I hope you are joking. Some areas in the North have been devastated. It is becoming a rare thing to see deer along roads and in fields. Deer sign is slim to none in some areas that used to have healthy herds of deer.

There is no doubt an increase is wolf population with the increase in tags given out has added to the issue, but even without bonus tags and wolves a couple of bad winters will do the same thing. The good news is that if the deer population gets low enough, the wolves will move on smile... and that global warming thing.... smile

Hopefully we will have the ability to have a wolf season soon, just to keep numbers in check.

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